The Mortality of Moirane Carvain
by Winters-Dawn1221
Summary: The black wings are unfurled, the Prince approaches, and a long-dead Chimeri warlord rises to conquer the East. The only thing standing between Tamriel and her doom is a young Imperial woman named Moirane, who must face her turbulent destiny before she can stop the coming carnage. But first she must escape the headman's block and unscramble the riddles. Please read and review! :)
1. Prologue

In the closing days of the Third Era, everyone had bad dreams.

In the years after the Warp of the West, settlements were destroyed by undead and travelers attacked by monsters both in the wilderness on upon the roads.

In the decades after the defeat of Jagar Tharn, the walls between Nirn and the Planes of Oblivion grew ever weaker.

In the last years before war and death came and the end of the world was heralded I was born.

In the year 3E 407, the most cursed child in Mundus was born to Count Peragus and Countess Ophelia Carvain of Bruma in the Tamrielic province of Cyrodiil.

That child grew up to be me.

My name is Moirane Carvain. I am the former secretary and scribe to Emperor Uriel Septim VII, a Lady of Bruma, an apprentice in the Arcane University, the Nerevar incarnate, the Hero of Kvatch, the Savior of Bruma, the Champion of Cyrodiil, and the Dragonborn – Dovahkiin and Ysmir.

And this is the story of how I saved the world...

...and how I died

**I'm doing some changes to the story, editing and adding and so forth. The title is also changing and I'd appreciate any feedback on the matter.**

**DDISCLAIMER: this stands for the entire story: I do not own any recognizable content (I.e. Tamriel, Daedra, Sheogorath... Etc.), that all belongs to the higher powers at Bethesda Gaming Studios.**


	2. The Life and Trials of Moirane Carvain

The Life and Trials of Moirane Carvain

I was born in the coldest days of the winter of 3E 407 on the 23rd Sun's Dawn. I was raised in the Castle of County Bruma with my elder sister Narina Carvain for seven years before my mother died of Ataxia.

The five years that followed were difficult for both County Bruma and my sister and I as my father, once a tall and proud, golden haired Nord, declined. I was twelve when he died, peaceful despite his lack of strength, in his sleep, and Narina was left to care for both the County and I as the new Countess Bruma.

She was only nineteen when she took the County Seat.

Sometimes, if I try, I can still remember what she was like before our mother died: calm, caring, and ready to defend me against anything from mudcrabs to mountain lions. But after Mother passed, she became distant and gave me the cold shoulder more often than not. However, it wasn't until our father died did the final fracturing crack appear and shatter her and her indifferent tolerance of me.

To explain Narina, I must explain what she believes I did. Mother was an Imperial and, despite living all her life in the frozen Jerall Mountains, had never been as sturdy as the Nord women of the town. Narina was born in summer on the 20th of Sun's Height. It was very warm that year so the mountain atmosphere had been pleasanter than normal. I had been difficult though, Mother never quite recovered after giving birth to me in the dead of frozen winter. Then, as I've been told, a rat attacked my mother on a return journey from Falkreath. In her weakened state there was little our Castle Mage or the Priests and Healers of the Chapel of Talos could do by the time she made it home to Castle Bruma.

According to Narina, I began our mother's slow death, which the rat only hastened. In doing this, she says I 'caused our father's broken heart', bringing his demise about.

That was what Narina told me when I was twelve and she was yelling at me the night before shipping me to the Arcane University.

I gained knowledge with age and learned since that day that Arkay simply deemed fit to summon them to Aetherius, or Sovngarde, I do not know. I do know that without their terrible, but necessary deaths, all of Eastern Tamriel would be destroyed and countless would be dead.

With that knowledge, I also discovered – to my own mortification – that not only the Daedra, but the Aedra as well, favored me as the Queen in their complicated chess game.

After my sister became Countess and figuratively kicked me out of Castle Bruma, I studied for six years at the Arcane University before, at eighteen, the Emperor requested a new attendant to act both as a personal secretary and scribe with some ability in magic.

I wasn't the first choice but after one person tried to steal an Elder Scroll from the Imperial Palace Library and after another streaked through town after mysteriously disappearing to the West Weald while Countess Leyawiin had a disastrous dinner party that had been reportedly caused by the attendant and – supposedly – a Daedric Prince, I was suggested to the Chancellor by the former Arch-Mage to serve Uriel Septim VII.

Those were the greatest years of my life. I remember very little from before my mother died and the five years following her burial were tense and cold. My years at the university were spent studying or working with little to no time for personal pleasure. The eight years I served the Emperor were an adventure of traveling with the royal court, learning, and becoming more skilled in both Destruction magic and sword play. With every passing day I vowed to never forget any of the fantastic and the other, somewhat odd, things I discovered living in the Imperial Palace.

The Emperor even told me once that he considered my nearly as good a Battlemage as Chancellor Ocato was.

That was why, on the 27th of Last Seed in the year 433 3E, I was so sure that with my magic and the Blades' swords, that we would get Emperor Uriel to safety after learning assassins had attacked his three sons.

That was the day my life truly changed forever.

My Emperor died and I was thrown into a deadly world.

**The changes I've made begin to grow more noticeable here. I've tried to add more detail and feeling to Moirane's back story and I feel I've succeeded. It isn't perfect, but it's good.**


	3. The Fall of the Emperor

The Fall of the Emperor

I looked attentively over the plans I had written out for the day and scrunched up my nose. The Emperor had a scheduled luncheon with the Arch-Mage from the Arcane University and barely any preparations had been made for it yet.

"Sire, would you like to have the luncheon in the parlor on the second floor or the dining room on the third?" I asked, tiredly. Traven had been due to come for this luncheon for nearly two weeks and the only fixed thing was the time, forty five minutes after noon.

"Which ever you believe is suitable enough, Moirane," Emperor Uriel said absentmindedly, frowning as he gazed out the window.

He'd been doing that for the past fifteen minutes.

"My Lord, are you alright? Would you like me to call a healer?" I inquired of him, quirking an eyebrow and frowning in concern. Emperor Uriel had been acting somewhat different from his usual cunning, yet fatherly self for well over a month or so and I was beginning to become worried. I know that he's not exactly young but he has always been energetic despite his age. Secretly, I wasn't ready for Geldall to become Emperor and I don't think he's ready either.

"No Moirane, but I thank you for your concern," The Emperor said, finally turning to face me where I sat at the table with my long parchment roll containing the engagements, meetings, and the general schedule for the 27th of Last Seed.

The Emperor gave me a searching look that made me feel as if I was transparent enough that he could see right through me. I tried to hold his gaze but after only a moment I had to look back at my parchment. He had always done this and I felt strangely exposed each time, almost as if my entire mind was a book he could simply flip through. The first time he'd done it, the Arch-Mage at the time had told me that it was a part of being a true blooded Septim, that they could see much more than lesser men. Ever since, I wondered what he saw when he gave me that look, despite the feeling of uncleanness and of being in my nightgown in front of the entire Elder Council that it usually gave me.

After a couple minutes of this, I finally decided to ask if he would like jasmine tea or honey tea with the meal, just to make the searching stare cease. However, before I could utter a sound, the door to the reading room we were in burst open with a fierce, echoing crack!

I jumped to my feet instantly with a shock spell in each hand, ready to halt the sudden intruder from harming the Emperor before I even realized I'd done so. We had been receiving strange messages all month, threatening both Uriel Septim and his three sons and I wasn't about to risk anything.

"My Lord-!" An Imperial messenger halted, both startled and scared at seeing the shock spells ready to be fired. "Lady Carvain!"

"Yes, Messenger? What is it?" Emperor Uriel asked calmly, placing an old hand on my left arm and gently pushing it downward, causing the electricity to evaporate away. I let my right arm do the same and I started to fidget.

"Sire... Your sons were... Were attacked," the messenger panted and my eyes opened wide with shock and fear. They were attacked…? "Prince Geldall and Prince Ebel were ambushed. I do not know what happened to Prince Enman. Captain Renault-."

The door instantaneously burst open once more and Captain Renault, the head of the Blades stationed in the Imperial Palace, burst in with her Akaviri Katana drawn. She was flanked by two male Blades, a Redguard and an Imperial, with tense, wary expressions on their faces.

Captain Renault glanced around suspiciously before sighing with relief upon seeing that the Emperor was alright, however, she did not sheath her Katana.

"Sir, you need to come with us," Captain Renault said, looking determinedly at the Emperor. "Your sons were ambushed and I have other Blades defending them. But we need to get you out of the city," she explained quickly and clearly. She then nodded to the messenger and he dashed away, probably to tell Ocato of the attack. By the end of the day, the Imperial Palace was probably going to be swarming with Legion, Blades, and the Imperial City Watch and the staff and council were probably going to be interrogated.

I stood still as the Redguard and the Imperial went out into the hall as Captain Renault began to lead Emperor Uriel out of the room, however, he stopped once he was at the door. "Aren't you coming, Moirane?"

I shook my head. "Shouldn't I stay here and make sure the princes are alright before helping Chancellor Ocato-?"

"I believe I'll have more need of you than our friend the chancellor before the day is over," The Emperor said softly as Captain Renault began to fidget impatiently.

I stared longingly at my parchment, quills, and my copy of 'Fall of the Snow Prince' lying close at hand. I was going to read it while the Emperor was at lunch but now, I realized with a jolt, that was cancelled.

All of today's plans – and possibly tomorrow's – gone up in smoke. I started to feel rather light headed as Emperor Uriel reached forward and gently grabbed me by the arm before slowly pulling me after him and Captain Renault. I stumbled along in a daze as we went through the unnaturally quiet halls of the Imperial Palace. The five foot long schedule I had written out for the month of Hearthfire was suddenly useless!

As I went through my internal meltdown, the Blades led Emperor Uriel and I down many twisting hallways and several flights of stairs. Within thirty minutes we arrived at the tunnel that led to the Imperial City Prison.

"I know this place... the prison?" The Emperor inquired of Captain Renault as he looked around the white stoned dungeons. He kept a firm hand on my elbow as I began to nervously chew on a fallen strand of hair, a bad habit I had picked up in the University and was never able to drop.

"Yes, your majesty, beneath the Legion Compound. We're headed for a secret passage known only to the Blades, no one can follow us through here," the Captain affirmed. The Emperor didn't ask any more questions, but he acquired a thoughtful, yet troubled, expression. I let the damp hair fall from my mouth before staring at him, the worry from earlier coming back and making me feel rather drawn.

We made quick work going through to the last prison cells as my stomach twisted into worried knots. I took several deep breathes, trying to steady myself as Captain Renault unlocked the last cell on the left. Looking around, I saw a deranged male Dunmer staring at us with crazed red eyes and I turned quickly away. After a few tense moments, the Captain managed to open the left-hand cell and the Emperor and I followed her inside. Looking around showed only the bare cell walls, a bed in the wall, and a small rickety table with clay cups and a pitcher. The only sign of any former inhabitants was a coarse standard issue prison blanket with a few strands of red brown hair and a busted pillow. Obviously the former owner had moved recently.

The Emperor hesitated at the door and looked around wearily as the younger Blade Baurus stayed outside the cell to watch the corridor while Captain Renault and the Blade Glenroy tried to open a secret door in the cell wall above the bed. I glanced around once more before moving to stand closer to the Emperor. He took no notice, however, and continued to stare almost unseeingly at the window.

I frowned in concern, my own worries temporarily forgotten. "Sire, do you need anything? I have a flask of Colovian Brandy if you need some," I offered, twisting around to look in my bag. Spare parchment, writing coal, some cheesy bread – ah ha! The brandy! I looked back up with the flask in my hand only to see Emperor Uriel looking at me with a pained frown and for the second time in an hour he gave me his unnerving, soul reading stare. "Sire...?"

"Stay near Moirane, for this is the hour," he said suddenly and quietly. "Gods give me strength," Emperor Uriel inclined his head ever so slightly, looking ill at ease.

Dropping the flask back inside my bag, I moved to cross my arms in front of myself, trying to stop the sudden trembling. Whatever he meant, it wasn't good and I suddenly felt an intense trepidation about what might lay at the end of this escape tunnel. "What are you talking about, my Lord? Maybe you should..."

"My sons... They are dead Moirane, and now the assassins are coming for me," Emperor Uriel said, his voice melancholy in tone.

What he said hit my like a chariot colliding with a stone wall. Geldall, Enman, and Ebel… all gone? Never to walk Tamriel again and not one of them left to uphold the royal Septim name? The knots in my stomach seemed to pull my intestines and kidneys into the mix and I felt rather sick. If the princes are all dead then… No, I should not, cannot, and will not think about it. We will get out of this rat invested hole and we will protect the Emperor. Once he is in a safe and secure location, the Blades and the Elder Council will lead an investigation and we will take care of this assassination threat and the Empire will live on and thrive for many years.

I crossed my arms in a more dignified manner, trying to appear calmer than I actually was. "My Lord, we will get you out of the city. I swear on my life that you will see day light again," I swore, trying to sound steady and reassuring. A worried frown blossomed upon my brow at the mournful look he gave me before he began to nod slowly in thought.

I was about to insist that he drank some of the brandy (and then I would drink some as well) when Glenroy and Captain Renault gave two sudden and triumphant cries. Both Emperor Uriel and I turned to see the wall slide away to reveal a dark passage leading into the Ayleid-made under city of the Cyrodilic Capital. The Emperor and I exchanged similar works of apprehension and unease as Baurus stepped into the cell and our party of five began moving once more.

Captain Renault led the way with Glenroy while Baurus and I walked behind the Emperor as it offered double protection on both ends while the walls guarded the sides. It was dark in the passages, despite the white stone from which Ayleid ruins and structures are made of, dark and cold and musty. I shuddered, remembering an Ayleid ruin that some of the best apprentices in my year had been taken to examine after passing our exams.

In the distance, I could hear a rat scurry somewhere ahead. Tugging a piece of hair towards my trembling mouth, I remembered what the rodents had deprived me of. I know it's petty, but...

I dropped the strand of hair before the tips could even brush my lips as I heard another noise.

This was not a noise from a dratted rodent, scurrying along with its disease ridden body in the shadows.

Something - or someone - large was moving up ahead in the darkness.

"Captain-!"

Before I could finish my sentence. Before I could scream. Before I could blink. Before we knew what exactly was happening, four figures in blood red robes come running at us, summoning strange shimmering bound armor onto their person. I barely had time to cast a Magicka ward in front of the Emperor and I before their jagged bound maces met with the Blades' Katanas. I drew my Elven shortsword as the Emperor drew his silver one and I laid into one of the mysterious assassins with a blind fury.

Just as soon as the fighting had begun, it ceased.

I stumbled against the wall, brushing my dark brown fringe from my face as I looked around for Emperor Uriel. When I caught sight of him, I breathed a sigh of relief. He was unharmed, but he seemed uneasy and shaken as he gripped the pillar in the middle of the stairs. I couldn't blame him for it.

Baurus sheathed his Katana as Glenroy went to look ahead for more assassins. The young Blade then turned to the Emperor with a concerned look on his clean shaven face. "Are you all right, Sire? We're clear for now."

"Captain Renault?" The Emperor asked, worried as he looked around the room.

The Redguard looked up towards the stairs between the Emperor and I. Following his gaze, I gasped and a hand flew to my mouth as the other grew limp around the handle of my sword. The Blade Captain lay dead on the dirty white stone steps as her life blood oozed crimson from several areas where the bound mace of an assassin had rent her armor and shredded the heavy padding underneath. "She's dead. I'm sorry, Sire, but we have to keep moving," Baurus said, voice shaking slightly. He was trying to be strong but in the light of our entire situation, it was hard. Even though the Redguard could hold himself together, I couldn't and several tears slipped down my cheeks.

Emperor Uriel gave the body of the fallen Blade a mournful and regretful look before silently nodding and following Baurus down the passage where Glenroy waited to open an old, wooden door. Hovering behind, I pushed myself shakily off the wall before shuffling over to Captain Renault's body and kneeling down. I halfheartedly acknowledged the fact that we could not take her and give her a proper burial as she so greatly deserved, but I could take her Katana and have it mounted in her memory in a place of honor.

"May you find peace in Aetherius for your unwavering loyalty," I croaked out. I reached down to close her eye lids as my chest heaved, trying not to look at the terror frozen in her dead grey eyes.

I slowly picked up the Katana before getting to my feet. I bowed my head, wishing I could do more, before turning around to join the Emperor at the end of the room as Baurus and Glenroy forced open an old wooden door after breaking its rusted lock.

We walked with a determined stride through the creeping dark of the under city. To me, it felt like a never ending eternity of silent walking, every distant pillar an assassin and every shadow a threat. The darkness crept in around us and the still quietness was broken only by the occasional drip drop of stale water and the scurrying of rats in the distance. The whole labyrinth made my skin crawl and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. We were in that portion of the ruin for two hours despite my irrational thoughts of eternal walking for the ancient tunnels. We weren't attacked, but the Blades kept their Katanas out and I kept a flame in my right palm for warmth, for light, and for protection.

At long last, after I had nearly given up hope, we came through another door that the two remaining Blades had to break through. After conversing quietly, Glenroy went to look around a head to see how close we were to the exit and Baurus stood in the doorway to make sure we were not followed. This gave the Emperor and I a time to rest and we both sat down on a raised ledge along the border of the room.

The two of us sat in silence for a minute, catching our breath, before Emperor Uriel turned and looked at me. "Tell me, Moirane, what birthsign were you born under?"

I glanced up from examining the torn hem of my dress to give him a puzzled look. "I don't understand, your Majesty...?"

The Emperor gave me a look like that of a father about to explain why birds go away in winter. He often gave me this look when I asked a question or became puzzled. It had lessened over the years as I grew more knowledgeable in the ways of the Elder Council, the Imperial Court, and my general duties, but every now and then I'd ask something and that look would appear on his face.

"Do the Divine Powers of the Ritual guide you or the poisoned bite of the Serpent?" He asked gently.

Realization dawned on me. He wants to know what special power I could use in case we were cornered and our swords broke and our Magicka drained. The Emperor didn't know and I think he may be disappointed, unless undead creatures suddenly attacked. That was not an impossible possibility, I reminded myself as I gave him a sheepish smile.

"The Ritual, Sire."

He nodded, seeming pleased. "Pray the Ritual guides you, Moirane."

That is not what I expected him to say.

"Sir-."

Glenroy came trudging back, cutting me off. "We're clear, Sire, let's go." Baurus came back through the door and the four of us pressed onward to freedom.

However, we had barely passed through to the next room when we heard shouting and footsteps.

After several tense hours of waiting, the assassins were back.

Yelping, I shot an Ice Spike at one of the assassins who was running headlong for the Emperor with his bound mace held aloft and shouts in Altmeris falling from his gaping mouth. He quickly went down when the spike of frozen water slammed into his chest. The assassin's mace and armor vanished to show crimson red robes and the pointed golden face of an Altmeri male. I looked up hurriedly to see Baurus and Glenroy taking care of the other two red assassins. Once I was sure that they wouldn't be over powered, I looked to the Emperor.

"My Lord?" I asked quietly upon seeing his faraway look. He looked at me and beckoned me closer. Dutifully, I stepped to his side and he rested a withered hand on my quivering shoulder.

"I've served the Nine all my days, and as you well know, I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens," Emperor Uriel said quietly his gaze shifted to the corpse of the Altmer with ice covering his chest before looking back at me with an intent look in his eye. I shifted somewhat uncomfortably. "The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and everyone a sign. I know these stars well," he paused and gave me a questioning look and I nodded. I long ago studied the names of the constellations and the planets as well as their ancient paths through the sky and I still remember them to this day. "The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

Barely had the words fallen upon my ears when my entire mind went still, blank as an artist's canvas. It stayed that way for hardly a moment before frantic thoughts and images popped up. All the anxiety that had built up over the last several hours finally broke free and I visibly grew pale and sick looking.

"My Lord! You can't die! You must, you have to be wrong!" I cried panicking. "What about the Empire? Or the Dragonfires in the Temple? Or… or me! Or-!" I took a steadying breath. "What about your people?"

Emperor Uriel gave me a pitying look before squeezing my shoulder and dropping his hand. "Your stars are not mine. Today the Ritual shall speed you on your star-patterned path," he sighed when I gave him a teary-eyed look. When a tear threatened to spill over, I bowed my head, suddenly finding my dirty shoes to be far more interesting to look at. "My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death." The Emperor placed a hand under my chin to lift it up, forcing me to make eye contact. "But in your face, I behold the sun's companion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied."

My lip started quivering and I teetered on the spot as soon as his hand fell away once more. This couldn't, can't be the end... Can it?

"Sire, you can't… I can't… aren't you…?" I sobbed.

The Emperor gave me the same fatherly look as before and I felt tears spill over in great round droplets to fall down my face. "Shh, Moirane, all's well. No trophies of my triumphs precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy. Men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not the hour. In this I am blessed to see the hour of my death... To face my apportioned fate, and then fall." I shook my head, more cobweb filled strands falling from my hair ribbon. "Do not cry Moirane, for my end is only your beginning," he paused and I knew he was holding something back. Something important. Something vital and life changing. But instead of questioning him, all I could do was cry.

I stood there, trying to get myself under control. When I finally could breathe somewhat normally, I ventured to speak, hoping my voice wouldn't crack. "Where are we going?"

"I go to my grave," he gave me another pitying look. "A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part."

I was about to say something, anything to make this man, Uriel Septim VII of Tamriel, deny this coming doom. To say that he was making a bad jest in the face of assassination. Before I could open my mouth, Glenroy called for us to continue on, he and Baurus had taken care of the remaining assassins and were already several yards ahead of the two of us..

The Emperor gave me a weary look before moving along towards where the Blades stood beyond the open door to the next room. I took several deep, steadying breaths before going to join them.

We went on towards the sewers and our escape.

We entered a large room with a few, unreachable levels along the high, ancient walls. I hurried ahead of the group and wiped my face furiously with my handkerchief. I couldn't bear to look at the Emperor after what he'd said about his death. He couldn't go, he couldn't die, he couldn't leave me like my parents and Narina and everyone else, he...

My train of thought halted abruptly when I reached the gate that would lead us to the room with the door to the sewer and I attempted to pull it open.

It was locked.

Forcing down another wave of panic, I turned around and raised an eye as the Emperor and the Blades came up to stand behind me.

"Do you have the key, Glenroy?" I asked tersely, barely managing to keep the fear out of my voice.

He scowled, obviously 'not amused'. "What do you mean, Lady Carvain? The gates are supposed to be unlocked!"

"Well they're not!"

"You're a mage! Use your sorcery and melt it or something!"

"It's not that easy. I am not trained in Alteration enough to-."

"Lady Carvain, there's a side passage back behind us a little. Maybe it leads in there?" Baurus suggested, causing Glenroy and I to cease our argument.

I risked a glance at Emperor Uriel. He had an amused expression on his face and I gave the general room a glare fit for a Nordic Warrior. I trudged back towards the room Baurus had mentioned and the other three followed.

We're going to get out of this cold, Divines' forsaken labyrinth.

We entered the room and I glanced around.

We're doomed.

"It's a dead end!" Baurus the Obvious exclaimed.

There was no way this could get worse, I thought miserably, staring at the blank walls.

But Akatosh and the Nine liked making fun of me today.

Or they traded my fate to the Daedric Princes for some Skooma.

The sounds of more assassins came from the large room behind us and Baurus and Glenroy ran out to hold them off.

Drawing my sword, I positioned myself so that I faced the door and any foes that tried to come in. Death is inevitable, death comes to all, death is only the start of the next great adventure, death-.

"Moirane."

I continued to stare at the door way, ignoring the voice of the Emperor.

"Moirane Carvain, look at me."

His voice wasn't forceful, it was still gentle, but there was nothing I could do but look at him.

"Yes, my Lord?" My voice sounded calm but I knew that he could see right through whatever façade I put up.

"Moirane, listen carefully for there is much to say and little time in which to say it." He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me to face him, prompting me to lower my sword. "My guards are strong and true, but even the might of the Blades and your loyal resolve cannot stand against the Powers that arise to destroy us. You must venture into the world and grow, just as the mountain flowers grow in the north. The Red Mountain is alive and burns and the heart of the Lost God beats in the center. The Prince of Destruction awakes, born anew in blood and fire. The Black Wings are soaring on the wind once more and the World-Eater comes. These cutthroats are but mortal pawns in a game of mortals, gods, and thrones." The Emperor suddenly looked more ancient and withered than the old leather tomes in the library. "Moirane Ariana Kintyra Carvain, Ahtiid daar Kagaav ahrk jaaril nii, Mon do dovah sonah, joor sonah, ahrk faal Nen. Kos mul."

For some strange reason, I couldn't look away as he uttered the strange words and they washed over me, feeling me with strange, turbulent feelings as if two beings were fighting for dominance. I stared at him like a gaping fish, unable to speak, before I at last managed to utter a coherent word. "What...?"

Uriel Septim simply smiled at me, once more normal, before reaching up and taking off the Amulet of Kings, the sign of the Septim Empire, and dropped it around my neck.

"Protect this Amulet, Moirane Carvain." He waved his hand and the Amulet of Kings glowed green before shrinking to the size of a small locket and vanishing.

He cast a shrinking and an invisibility spell on the Amulet of Kings.

I was wearing the Amulet of Kings.

And it wasn't falling off?

Why?

How?

What?

"We must part now Moirane. You have many trials ahead of you. The death of the Beauty of Dawn is drawing near and the Ritual and the Mage must plot together to stop it. At first opportunity go to Jauffre. I have a secret son and Jauffre alone knows where to find him. Find the last of my blood, and close shut the marble jaws of Oblivion. Cease the loss of souls in Aetherius and the burning fires from the sky. Restore the sun. Stop the false deity from ravaging the land. One way or another Moirane Carvain, madness will reside in the Hero's heart."

Suddenly, before the thousand and one questions pulsing rampantly through my brain could spill out seeking answers, I felt a cold, clammy feeling wash over my entire body and fill my throat and lungs. Someone had cast a paralysis and a silencing spell on me.

The Emperor looked me in the eye as one of the assassins came around from the left into my line of vision.

"Do not light the fire yourself," Emperor Uriel whispered as my Elven blade was snatched from my still hands.

I tried to think of anything to break the spell, to release me so I could stop this. If I could just fling myself a little to the left, I could topple the assassin and-.

"Farewell."

Pain shot through my jaw as I wrenched it open, giving forth a soundless scream as Emperor Uriel Septim VII fell dead with my well known, shock enchanted, Elven shortsword buried deep within his abdomen. Visible electric currents went both upwards and downwards throughput his body, pulsing steadily from the wound in his torso. The assassin chuckled as he cast a chameleon spell upon himself and disappeared, causing the enchantments holding me to fail.

I fell at the side of my dead Emperor, choking back heart tearing sobs. He was dead, he was gone, the line was ended, and I was alone. All I could see was red as I clutched at the fine robes of my Emperor and cried. Why did they do this? Why was the gate barred? Why-?

The sound of hurried footsteps met my ears as Baurus ran in. When they noise stopped, I knew it was because he had caught sight of me, hunched over the Emperor's bloody, seared body, and my sword in his abdomen.

Listing my head, I met Baurus's face, full of turmoil, and we stared at each other for a full minute before he moved.

"You... You..." Baurus finally stuttered.

"Please..."

"He trusted you!" Baurus yelled suddenly and I began to cry harder. "And all this time... You've been plotting against him! You are nothing but a witch who'd see the death of the Empire!"

"Baurus, please-!" My eyes opened wide in astonishment. He can't possibly be saying that I was behind the attempts and ultimate deaths of Uriel Septim and his heirs? How dare he! How dare he accuse me when I have always been loyal and unwavering in my duty to lord and realm!

The Blade frowned harshly, looking from the fallen Emperor to me with a dark, ugly scowl on his face. "Where's the Amulet of Kings?"

"I-."

"What have you done to it, you vile witch!"

Suddenly, I found myself on my feet and was pinned painfully against the white stone wall. Baurus's face was so close to mine that I could fell his hot breath stinging my face where the tears had fallen.

"Where. Is. It?"

"I don't know!" I yelled. I froze, abhorred at myself for lying. I'd never lied, not since I was a little girl. But before I could correct my mistake and try to reason with Baurus, he moved away quite suddenly and I fell hard on my hands and knees, jarring my left arm terribly. I looked up, face full of fear, to see the hilt of a Katana coming towards my head.

A sharp pain blossomed in the side of my skull and I saw black spots in my vision.

The next thing I knew was darkness and nothing else for a long while

**Oh Lord, that's over two thousand more words than I originally had... What's wrong with me?**


End file.
